North America

GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire raged through a small Northern California forest town Tuesday, burning dozens of homes as dangerously dry and windy weather also continued to fuel other massive blazes and prompted the nation’s largest utility to begin shutting off power to 51,000 customers.

The Caldor fire in the northern Sierra Nevada had burned an estimated 50 homes in and around Grizzly Flats, a town of about 1,200 people, fire officials said at a community meeting.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to his office, who said the Republican is in good health and experiencing no symptoms.

L’ASILE, Haiti (AP) — The problems in Haiti may be summed up by the public hospital in L’Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the nation’s southwest area. Here, a full four days after a powerful earthquake hit this region the hardest, people are still showing up from isolated villages with broken arms and legs.

Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday, the same day officials raised the disaster’s death toll by more than 500. Grinding poverty, poor roads and faith in natural medicine all conspire to make the problems worse.

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned against travel to Turkey because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in that nation but eased its advisory for India.

The CDC added Turkey to its “Level 4: Very High” COVID-19 level, while lowering India to “Level 2: Moderate.”

US President Joe Biden on April 30 imposed new travel restrictions on India in light of COVID-19, barring most non-US citizens from entering the United States who had been in India within the previous 14 days.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Promoting development in southern Mexico will be a key objective of the so-called high level economic dialogue to be held between the United States and Mexico next month, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a regular news conference, Ebrard said border infrastructure and creating economic opportunities in Central America will also be central to the agenda.

OTTAWA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Mail-in voting in Canada is set to soar ahead of the Sept. 20 election amid fears of COVID-19, and the complex registration process could deter voters, possibly undermining Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's bid for a majority government.

Pollsters say mainly Liberal and left-leaning voters would like to use mail-in balloting, while Conservatives prefer to vote in person. But Liberal strategists are concerned the sign-up process for casting ballots by mail could discourage their supporters from using it and lead them to not vote at all.

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States remains among nations with the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases, driven mostly by a surge in the south, where many states are lagging in getting people vaccinated against the coronavirus, CNN has reported.

In August, the United States has so far reported more than 1.5 million new cases, more than three times the numbers for Iran and India, which now hold second and third place respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden announced he would stick to his predecessor’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Republican reaction was mixed and largely muted. Foreign policy had become so contentious that the party’s own leaders had no single position on the end of the nation’s longest war.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. experts are expected to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country.

LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Tropical Storm Grace swept over Haiti with drenching rains just two days after a powerful earthquake battered the impoverished Caribbean nation, adding to the misery of thousands who lost loved ones, suffered injuries or found themselves homeless and forcing overwhelmed hospitals and rescuers to act quickly.